Never.

BPot do you understand what “Don’t tread on me” is?

Nobody is interested in exploring those blatant contradictions, though. 

Your arguments are old.

First of all leadership is not about followng the polls. It is about driving forward with what you believe it. That is leadership.

But, lets look at some of the polls. A couple of things: people in this country “do” want healthcare reform, many of them want this bill and once people are actually explained what is in the bill they generally have a much more favorable view.

If it was not for people like you who are spreading a lot of BS and health insurance company narratives, I am sure the polls would be better. I am not sure what exactly your agenda is on here, as you really do not explain very well and clearly why you are against this bill. The public will come around. In fact, the polls show they are starting to come around.

AP has a poll out today saying that only 4% of Americans do not want any reform.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLuiHkZh_6jawpShuW9JXGMuMZ1gD9EBBR8G0

http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm

In the same poll 41% support the current bill and 43% oppose. That is hardly a big clear majority of Americans that are against the current bill. And once people are actually explained what is in the bill the numbers go up and a majority favor the bill.

According to a Kaiser poll (which is associated with an HMO) after explaining many aspects of the bill support goes way up.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/01/when_explained_health_bill_pop.html

According to other polling once the bill is explained those opposed significantly drops.

“The pollsters began by asking respondents a straightforward question: Do you support health care reform? The answers were consistent with what published surveys have shown. Among the older voters, just 36 percent supported reform while 47 percent opposed it. Among the self-described independents, the response was even more negative: just 30 percent supported it while 51 percent opposed it.

Then the pollsters told the respondents about some of the features reform included–like guaranteeing insurance access for people between 55 and 64, prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, expanding home- and community-based services, ending lifetime caps on benefits, and providing tax credits to small business.

After explaining these features, the pollsters returned to the original question: Do you support health care reform? The numbers jumped dramatically, with older voters saying they approved of reform legislation by 47 to 37 percent. independent voters moved, too, with 44 supporting and 39 percent opposing it once they’d heard about the benefits.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/exclusive-encouraging-news-private-poll

And in fact Healthcare reform is actutally getting more popular. Read this out today.

“In fact, the public has moved sharply in the pro-reform direction over the last several weeks, with the margin of opposition falling by more than half.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/health-care-reform-getting-more-popular

What is not to like:

> +30 million more insured
> cuts costs and the deficit according to the CBO
> gets rid of pre-exisiting conditions
> allows you to keep your children on your insurance longer
> increases the size of the pools which should help to lower premiums or get people better insurance for same price
> creates exchanges which will add more competition for individuals and small business that buy insurance on their own.
> etc.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126503/Dems-Hold-Slight-Advantage-2010-Election-Preferences.aspx

If you really still believe the Republicans are going to retake Congress this fall, you are delusional. Ain’t gonna happen. 

I believe just the opposite: I believe that we will hold both houses and our losses will be less severe than expected today, as the American people embrace Obamacare. 

There, that should be pretty clear. And I promise to be here on Election Night to crow in victory or take my lumps in defeat. 

I strongly suspect that you and many other folks here on NQ would be 100% behind this bill if Hillary Clinton were the president promoting it. Especially since the emerging bill is remarkably similar to the health reform that she and her husband tried to pass in 1993. 

http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2010/mar/judicial-watch-obtains-top-secret-memorandum-detailing-closed-congressional-hearing-en

“…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”